Shikamoo!

(...literally 'I hold your feet'... a respectful Swahili greeting often heard from Tanzanian children!)



(Most of these pictures were taken in Tanzania through windows from inside moving vehicles...)

I am writing to you today from Mbeya in southern Tanzania (not to be confused with Mbale in eastern Uganda!) where I am catching up on some rest for a little while. Having been on the road this past week covering many miles by bus, I’ve decided to spend a couple days in this bustling city just north of the Malawian border that lies between the Mbeya and Poroto Mountain ranges. Travel through Tanzania has been fast, sometimes furious! and always interesting, but first…



I found Rwanda to be one very beautiful, peaceful and remarkably clean country and I am so happy to have made the journey to visit there! Seemingly a side bar yet so obviously important, plastic garbage bags are not allowed in Rwanda (entering the country my backpack was searched and the plastic bag I had a pair of shoes in was taken) and the benefits show everywhere! I found the consistent cleanliness both noteworthy and refreshing after sighting and stepping over much garbage, most of it plastic of some sort, in many urban and trading centers in Uganda.



After opting for ground travel to Malawi I left Kigali heading east toward the Tanzanian border on a typically crammed public taxi. We traveled through picturesque land with low gentle hills, many with crops of sorghum and maize growing in a beautiful pinkish brown soil, past fenced compounds with flowers around mud and stick or brick homes, most covered with a thin facing of concrete, seeing delightful pride of ownership and colorful creativity! Cosmos, daisies, dahlias, hollyhocks, a neon orange calendula-like flower all bloomed brightly and small, round, close to the ground shrubs of different colors were planted in designs that created messages and symbols including hearts and stars along the road side… just before the border, and a lovely summing up/send off from this small, courageous country striving to move forward as one, was the most inspiring of all the messages I saw… with shrubs and white rocks it simply, beautifully said ‘Thank You God’.



About 4 hours from Kigali we reached the Rwandan side of the border where, as he imprinted my passport with an exit stamp, the immigration officer asked with gentle intent if I would share with him how I liked the country. I told him I think Rwanda is very beautiful and I found the people friendly and welcoming. He said the government has been working very hard educating the people and promoting unity and I said, well, ultimately along with the huge healing in progress there does seem to be a collective desire and intention for peace first and foremost and I am grateful for the examples of acceptance and strength Rwanda has given to me. Perhaps these are among the great teachings Rwanda offers us all, I added. He smiled warmly, thanked me very much for coming and wished me safe journey.



To cross the border one walks across a bridge over Rusumo River/Falls and up a hill to enter Tanzania. The welcome was very happy and pretty layed back at this small border crossing, it was fun and easy to communicate once again, I was back in a land of English and Swahili and noticeable immediately, ug, garbage!



I took off the next day (only a few hours after the scheduled departure!) in a matatu
(mini bus type taxi) toward Kahama, about 4 hours to the east. From there, early the next morning I boarded a bus called ‘Super Zoo’ which in hindsight should have been my first clue that with every step up into the ‘mad max’ type bus, I was leaving rational driving further and further behind, entering an absolute maelstrom I can only call a travel experience! Details and yes, bruises aside, I did find it kind of fun and comforting to pretend I was in a camel race (read B-U-M-P-Y) across the desert (read D-U-S-T-Y) with a marching band cheering me on (read P-O-U-N-D-I-N-G repetitive bass drum sound coming from the rear of the bus as it reverberated over the foot deep washboard) for many, many miles! :) After a serious challenge to all known land speed records by our 'road warrior' driver I celebrated our safe arrival in Dodoma, the capitol city and virtual center of Tanzania about 1 hour ahead of the 10 hour scheduled ETA. Amen!



With bravery I feel a bit proud of, I immediately bought a ticket on the next early morning bus departing for Mbeya, found a quiet place to rest for the night and after lathering my lower back with ‘Tiger Balm’ promptly fell deeply asleep! Up for the second morning in a row in time to witness millions of twinkling stars above and hear prayers echoing throughout the town from the local Mosque, things looked and felt pretty great as I boarded the ‘Sumry High Class’ bus that was warming up and all ready to go in the bus park. And it WAS a delightful ride! We had a great driver, the company supplied everyone with a couple candies, a soda, muffin, bottle of water and plenty of pit stops (one time the driver’s assistant said to us all ‘let’s stop here and dig some local herbs..!’) throughout the 12 hour journey through beautiful and ever changing scenery. Alongside endless happy face sunflowers, sorghum and maize grow, some so tall they bury the little mud and brick flat topped homes amongst them. Cotton, tomatoes, rice, cabbage, beans, onions, many varieties of potatoes, even wheat…virtually everything, including all types of tropical fruit and 'sisol'sp?(jute) seems to be grown here!



I was treated to the first real ‘wild’ looking Africa I have seen so far, through uniformed forests of horizontal fanning trees and game reserves in the Mikumi National Park set between the Uluguru Mountains to the north and the Lumango Mountains to the southeast. I saw large numbers of long lanky giraffes and a family of elephants free ranging…very exciting! In the wide open grass lands I really enjoyed these great
(presently leaf-less) very old looking trees that reminded me of the ones in ‘Lord Of The Rings’ having large wide trunks that support their many arms and fingers stretching this way and that… it was so easy to imagine them all walking about when no one was looking…(a couple looked like they were frozen in dance and another few in an embrace). One of the towns we passed through is Iringa where in the 1950’s a ‘stone age’ site was unearthed containing tools estimated to be from between 60, to 100,000 years ago!



Tanzania (formerly called Tanganyika until the 60’s) is very large certainly when compared with Rwanda and Uganda, and quite a beautifully diverse country. In my travel book it is called the birthplace of ‘humankind’, oh, and Freddy Mercury too! It’s been a quick journey for sure, and thankfully safe, and as I prepare to enter Malawi tomorrow, (just over 100k from Mbeya) I leave this country hoping to return one day, where in the north it’ll be so fun to go on safari in the Serengeti as well as visit Ngorongoro in the Crater Highlands along with Mount Kilimanjaro and in the east, the Indian Ocean Coast and the ‘spice islands’ of the Zanzibar Archipelago!!!
For now though, much gratitude and… onward to meet some of the children of Malawi!

Loving you,
Cath xoxo

Ikiyaga ( Lake) Kivu

Approximately 160k northwest from Kigali is the city of Gisenyi on the shores of enchanting Lake Kivu. The well paved road between is very winding, kind of ridiculously so at times, over and around stunningly gorgeous hill after cultivated hill and through many a trading center including the city of Musanze (formerly Ruhengeri) which lies in the Virunga foothills, gateway to Volcanoes National Park and the renowned ‘critically endangered’ mountain gorillas. This was the place of work and research of Dr. Dian Fossey from the 1960’s until her murder in 1985. (You many recall the film ‘Gorillas In The Mist’ which chronicles her time here and the situation/circumstances facing the mountain gorilla). As the fee currently stands somewhere around $500US to track the gorillas for a day (or is it, once you find them, an hour..!) I just waved and wished them very well as we zoomed by!!!



Lake Kivu is very big and very beautiful! Although I thank Jinja, Lake Victoria, The River Nile and of course Beautiful Sipi Falls for the healing waters I found at each, after being land locked these past months I found it such a gift to walk along a wide open sandy beach and hear the lapping of waves upon the shore. Sparkling in the sunshine amongst the tiny rocks that make up the beach I was quite taken with these small pieces of shell? (I’m guessing) that look like zillions of little mirrors everywhere… I actually collected a few thinking they are so beautiful and a perfect reminder for me of the many facets of humanity Rwanda has clearly reflected for me during my ‘relatively short but right to the heart of it’ time here.



Looking across the huge lake one can see a ridge of mountains on the far shore in the Democratic Republic of the Congo… the city of Goma, DRC, is about a half day trip from Gisenyi… where among ‘other things’ Nyiragongo volcano erupted in 2002 covering the center of the city with lava leaving, I am told, what looks like a moonscape in some areas to this day…again, I waved!!!



I found my safe, peaceful, healing place at the lakeshore among some rocks….between, on my right, a windblown tree clinging its bared roots to one of the lava rocks at the waters edge in what I thought was some kind of terrific display of African strength and tenacity, and on my left, deeply carved, magical ancient rock faces that have been keeping steadfast watch for only they know how long... what they have seen, the incredible stories they could tell, I listened…



I was captivated by the distant sounds of little children laughing in the waves and I thought of Morning, Peter, Moses and all the children in Bukedea and wondered what they would think if they could see this wonderful place! They might be more used to sharing small mud type water holes with thirsty wandering cattle, that grow into ‘splash-able’ size after the rains…and I went off into some kind of dream when I will load them all into a ‘van’ one day and bring them to a lake for a real swim!!!




On the journey back to Kigali we came across a stretch of road where improvements are underway and due to a mini landslide that had just happened we were redirected down an extreme ‘secondary’ road, alongside a valley of tea and through a village that normally doesn’t see much traffic! Children quickly ran from all directions to line the dirt road, waving, calling out for empty water bottles and the occasional ‘franc’…most smiled and offered a ‘thumb’s up’ or even a ‘peace sign’ when they saw me at the window, (I was the only white on the mini bus)… at one point my eyes met those of a woman standing some meters away holding her tiny infant, we smiled at one another, she took the babies hand in hers and together they waved to me... one little girl sitting at the edge of the road talking with her friends let out a huge scream as she glanced up to see me looking out the window passing by only a few feet above her, which brought on a big laugh from those around her and all of us in the bus!




Back at the little auberge in Kimironko now and having visited the Kigali Memorial Center, connected with the project and center Nicole from Canada is working on here and taken the trip through some country side to Lake Kivu and back, I’m making plans to venture on, Malawi being the next country I am most wanting to visit. I will meet up there with two local men I met in Vancouver last year who are working tirelessly and with very limited resources to care for the many HIV/AIDS orphan children in this small, is it the ‘5th poorest' country in the world…? From here though, there’s Burundi to the south and I understand it’s not the best moment in history to visit there right now, and huge Tanzania to the east… so I’m figuring out how I’ll choose to get from here to Malawi and I guess once decided I’ll start out for there after a few more days of rest, seeing to this Rwandan version of a cold (cleansing…) I seem to be experiencing here these past couple days! Ya, there are voluminous, monumental type energies to ‘process’ here… and we’re all approaching our 2’nd consecutive full moon in watery (emotional, transformational) Scorpio :)

Love Love Love!
Cath xoxo

Ps…Correction re: my former attempt at Kinyarwandan… Muraho (Good day, Hello) and Amakuru (I am fine!)

Kigali Memorial Center

Wandering about Kigali the other day, I came across this amazing round about (traffic circle) very near the center of downtown. Although it was off at the time, a beautiful three-tiered fountain is in the center and lowly cropped hedges of different colors, patches of grass and pathways of small rocks create a beautiful star effect around it. Seeing that there was no one on the round about I thought it might be wise to ask a nearby security guard, (there are many, many uniformed security people around) if it would be ok to go and sit near the fountain for awhile….He referred me to the ‘fountain keeper’ standing nearby who said oh yes, of course, I was very welcome to sit there! After some time, he walked by where I sat on one of the rock steps leading down to the fountain. He went over to this door built into the ground and descended steps that disappeared under the fountain. Within seconds water sprayed up into the air and the fountain was fully on in all its glory…it was fantastic! I looked up to the top of the highest peak of water in the center, a rich blue sky as backdrop and there circling directly above were two eagles…WOWOWOW!!! THANKS!!!

From there, all full of joy I took a motorcycle boda (I was handed a helmet with a functioning face shield to wear) to the Kigali Memorial Center I mentioned in my last posting. When I arrived, there was a group of about 50 Rwandan men and women all dressed beautifully, each wearing a piece of purple fabric around their wrist or neck, each carrying a rose and standing quietly in two lines passing through the security gate in front of me. As I made my way around the first part of the memorial inside, the area dedicated to the Rwandan genocide, I learned some history about the country pre-colonialism; what occurred when Europeans arrived; what lead up to the genocide; the 100 days of the genocide that started on April 7, 1994 and the immediate time following, all the while crossing paths several times with the men and women ‘in purple’. Nearing the end, we entered a room where postcard size photos of people who were murdered in the genocide hang on individual clips, row upon row, men, women, teens, children, infants, several hundred people remembered in this one small room. As I sat in the center of the room with so many faces looking out at me, I could hear the soft moans and whispered cries of many of the women in the group as they looked very closely at every photo. Tears filled my eyes… there was exceptional pain in the room, extraordinary compassion and Love too. As she entered the next area, one woman’s pain became more than she could quietly bear when she saw display case after display case of human skulls and bones (the idea of which to display I am told is to ensure that people do not for a moment think that a genocide never happened here) and she collapsed onto her hands and knees sobbing in the door way, her deep and sorrowful cries filling the entire area. It was so incredibly sad, very powerful, and I sat for many moments holding LOVE in the center of my heart, streams of tears flowing down my face.

Yesterday, I met another traveler from Canada and when I asked her what she had thought of the memorial she said she thought it was good, maybe a bit on the impersonal side… when I explained my experience there to her I ended by realizing aloud, amazing, I cannot really say what ‘I’ thought of it… my time there turned out to be completely interconnected, collectively very personal and extremely intimate with the other people I was Blessed to join there.

Even the final moments for me inside the memorial were ones I will not forget… there is an area upstairs where several children who were killed in 1994 are remembered individually… along with a life size photo of each child one can learn their name, age, what their favorite food or toy was, who their best friend was and how they died. Again, when leaving the area, smaller photos of several hundred children hang on individual clips along the wall of a hallway. In an amazing 'twist' as I sat and looked at the beautiful faces of so many little ones, a refreshing, gentle yet VERY powerful breeze blew through a nearby open door from outside… the air rippled softly through the rows of photos and it looked and felt to me in that moment as though the children were most present… waving, playing, animated even giggling, if you will… the click-click of the photos blowing one into the other creating a sound so remarkably similar…

And I left the memorial feeling many things but mostly...
Indeed After All, LOVE Prevails
Catherine xoxo

...And Another Door Opens

I am up early this morning, sitting in the garden of the auberge where I am staying in an area called Kimironko, a district of Kigali, the capitol city of Rwanda. The birds are singing, light whispy clouds fill the pale blue sky, there is wonderful aura of peace and quiet while the new day awaits the sun which has yet to fully rise over the lush, rolling green hills surrounding this most beautiful city.

It has been a busy week, filled with many Blessings and much Gratitude, culminating in a somewhat cramped, yet happily, very safe 10 hour bus ride that brought me from Kampala to here. After bidding the children in Bukedea a most moving and heartfelt fare well for now, along with many more goodbye’s in Mbale, Bududa and Mukono, I stayed in Kampala for a few nights where I rested and regrouped before leaving there on Saturday morning. Traveling west from Kampala for the first time since being in Uganda, I was treated to the beautiful landscape that is so different than the areas to the east and surrounding Mbale… rolling hills covered in a light velvet green that reminded me of my home town in central BC, some covered in crops, large, expansive compounds, most with iron sheet homes, huts becoming less and less frequent with each mile, large numbers of very ‘long horned’ cattle grazing on acres of open land with short hedges separating one owners section from the next, through trading centers with 2 and even 3 storey buildings fronting the main street until closer to Kabale, the town just north of the border crossing where the hills become more numerous and closely condensed, and terraced crops cover every possible inch of every hill in sight, creating a stunningly beautiful landscape of multi colored stripes rising to the sky...

Entering Rwanda, ‘The Land Of A Thousand Hills’ we wound along one side of a valley, the terraced crops continuing on both sides, the floor home to miles and miles of tea, then sugar cane and finally rice...so remarkably exquisite was the scenery that the Nigerian film booming on the inboard TV was almost completely drowned out (for me!) by the enchanting harmony of the land.

Unlike Uganda where I heard ‘Muzungu’ echo constantly upon my arrival (and all throughout my stay) the single word I have heard the most here so far is ‘genocide’. Quite mystifying and in dramatically profound contrast, the splendor I see and feel in the land along with the very warm, gentle and gracious people who have welcomed me in the fresh, clean, energetic and thriving city of Kigali, there is a very distinct, deep, even ‘quiet’ sorrow here that is most palpable for me and my eyes have filled spontaneously with tears many times these past 2 days. Over this next week I’ll endeavor to understand more about what took place here in 1994 and how people have and are continuing to move forward. It seems a good place to start is at the ‘Kigali Memorial Museum’ www.kigalimemorialcenter.org in the Kisozi district of town where inside I understand there are 3 separate areas… the first, dedicated to the Rwandan genocide; the second, to other genocides that have taken place around the world including to the Armenian, Jewish and Cambodian people; and the third, an area remembering the thousands of Rwandan children who died here in 1994. Outside there is a public grave site in a memorial garden where the remains of more than 250,000 people have been layed to rest.

But first... more contrast... I’ve just been told it is time for a breakfast that’s been generously prepared for me… (bread, tomatoes, onions, omelet, coffee, tea) and then a ‘hello visit’ to the nearby center where Nicole, the Canadian woman I have specifically come here to meet, has developed a program for several widows from a nearby village over the past 3 years, along with the help of people back home in Canada.

Till next writing then, in the local language of Kinyarwanda ( French and English are also spoken here) … ‘Oraho’ ( sp?... greetings of hello) and ‘Amahura’ ( I am fine! )

With Love,
Catherine

Ps... I have decided out of Love and respect for the Rwandan people that I will take very few photos while in their country, particularly none while I am in Kigali. I have learned that following the genocide many, many foreigners came flocking to this country with their cameras, took picture after picture of the carnage on the streets and then left, many never to be seen again. Understandably, some of the local people have an great aversion to having their photo taken...

Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude!

Thanks kindly for the lovely birthday wishes from home! Imagine my delight to even receive a hand drawn cake and candles scanned across the miles from one of my darling nieces….Everyone’s Love now and throughout this entire journey is so VERY, VERY appreciated!

When I was in Jinja visitng the River Nile some months back, I happened upon these lovely Angels made out of dried banana tree fiber in a little ‘lock up’ on the main road of town. I took one of the Angels that I bought there out to Betty’s recently and asked the children if they could try to make some for me using material from the little plantation that is on the edge of their compound…



This past week on the day before my birthday, which the children did not know about… (I have learned, these children and many others I have met, adults too, may know the year and perhaps the day of the week, but seldom the number and only sometimes the month they were born, let alone have any experience or understanding about what a 'birthday' is)... so, I was visiting with them all and after walking the great field of gnuts they have recently planted and checking out the beans and then the maize (much of which 'oops' has been enjoyed in its infancy by the free range chickens in the area… they will plant more and try again…!) I was asked to sit in the hut where the children presented me with 65 Beautiful Angels, some made by each member of the family… what a gift heh…! Thank you children and Thank You Angels for showing your ever presence in the most amazing and timely ways..!



I enjoyed my 51st and the few days that followed at beautiful Sipi, a place I have become quite convinced must be one of THE most exquisite and healing on this earth, relaxing and receiving strength to ‘push’ me as I prepare to take my leave from Uganda by next week. (I am being reminded often right now… remaining 110% in Gratitude is the only way I can leave here, in PEACE, JOY and LOVE that is… :)



As I write, the wind up is in full swing… I was invited to Vincent’s (ACIO) for a very wonderful afternoon with his family and the founding members of the CBO… we shared a delicious meal of posho, matoke, beef, rice and greens and discussed many great and uplifting topics including our collective intention to remain together in Heart and Trust knowing more will be revealed at the perfect time as to how to proceed with the Child Care Center(s!) we all envision… and So It Is!



I’m busy making and organizing little Thank You’s for people here in Mbale including the lovely family at the compound where I have been staying, friends at the NGO, nearby resort, internet shop, my favorite Indian restaurant, etc… visiting here and there seeing people who have become such a huge part of this journey and my life these months... like the merchants whose stands and stores I’ve shopped at many times because of the fair ‘non muzungu’ price they have given me on everything from fabric, sewing machines, foamies, blankets, maize, beans, rice, backpacks, school shoes and supplies, used clothes, to even lollipops, etc…

I have a couple more visits planned over these next few days with both child families, and at this point it’s very true to say… we’re all (at times, MOST bravely...) doing our BEST 'Grateful' possible and no doubt are intending to remain in same as this time happens! And So It Is, too!



I’ll write again with plans once I’ve made it to Kampala where I will hop on a public taxi and head out to Mukono ( more bravery… remember that 7 hour traffic jam I was in when I first arrived..!) to have a visit with and drop off a photo album of pictures I have prepared for the very first warm and welcoming, beautiful, kind and Loving family I met and stayed with here, wow, all the way back in September… ahhhh… did it just get misty out or maybe I should say, in… :)



Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude!
Cath xoxo